10 



Farmers* Bulletin 12^7. 



To maintain their normal numbers from generation to generation a 

 rapid rate of increase, therefore, is not necessary. The young are 

 brought forth early in spring in rudely constructed nests of half-green 

 grass stubble and rootlets. The number in a litter is commonly three 

 in the case of the Townsend mole and four with the common eastern 

 mole (fig. 8). 



Moles grow and develop with astonishing rapidity. In the Puget 

 Sound country most of the young are born in the latter half of 

 March and spend the month of April in the nests. By the last of 

 May they are so well grown that the ordinary observer would not 

 be likely to distinguish them from the parent moles. This rapid 



BI43I6. 



Fig. 7. — The mole's method of repairing runways. Lower right-hand fork not repaired. 



growth accounts for the fact that a really small young mole is sel- 

 dom, if ever, trapped. By the time they leave the home nest and 

 take to the runways for themselves they have already attained some- 

 thing like the proportions of adults. 



NATURAL FOOD. 



A mole's appetite seems to be almost insatiable. When held in 

 captivity and given food to its liking, it will sometimes eat more 

 than its own weight in a day. The large quantity of food thus re- 

 ([uired is no doubt due to the intensely active life the little animal 

 leads. Perhaps no other mammal is relatively so strong or does so 

 much hard work in a day. 



